Appleyard laments
ALARGE crowd at Cross Green was assembled to welcome Macclesfield for what was expected to be a very competitive game.
Macclesfield were forced to rearrange their pack with the absence of Meek and Wilman, also introducing Will Davies for the first time this season covering for captain Tom Morton, who is likely to be out for some time with a broken arm.
The 4G pitch suited Macclesfield’s running game and they had all of the early pressure, rewarded by a try for Sam Moss from a lineout driving-maul; converted by Will Davies from wide out.
It wasn’t long before Hoppers equalled the score; again scored by the Hooker and Captain Christian Taylor, once of Macclesfield.
Macclesfield worked their way back deep into Preston’s half, but a quickly taken tap from a marked kick set up a ruck on the edge of their 22. It was an innocuous position, but Hoppers 13 Sam Stott ran from deep to take a crash-ball at pace, which took him through a gap in the defensive line and the rest of the field to run into, in full-flight he rounded Myles Hall to score.
At the next scrum, Dan Percival and the Macclesfield supporters seemed nonplussed as he was yellow-carded for the angle of his pushing (going backwards).
The Macclesfield scrum had been under pressure from the off, now with a player down, it was sure to get worse.
Hoppers were given a scrum 5 metres out after an injury stopped the game, the veteran Matt Lamprey picked up from the base and from the recycled ball the Preston number 4 Luke Proctor charged over from a few metres out; the score was 21-7 at half-time.
The second half started badly for Macclesfield, a tackle on the shoulder gave Hoppers another penalty and from the lineout Sam Stott crashed through again, bouncing the first-up tackler and his pace evading the cover defence to score his second.
The game ebbed and flowed until the 50th minute, a scrum for Macclesfield between there twenty-two and 10-metre lines created an opportunity out of nothing.
Once again Macclesfield were being driven backwards, at-a-rate-ofknots, Josh Redfern just managed to scramble the ball back to Alex Davies, who spotted that the onrushing Hoppers defensive line had left a gap.
Not needing a second invitation, he was through it in a flash, feeding his big-brother Will, just inside the Hoppers half who sprinted, unmolested, to score and convert his own try.
Preston fought their way into the Macclesfield half and another penalty for a high-tackle put them in a scoring position, the ball was fed to Lamprey and his strength and experience showed as he brushed-off the tackler to charge over, 35-14.
From the restart the hosts worked their way into the Macclesfield half and consecutive penalties again put them in striking distance. Number 10 Pearson lined up two Macclesfield forwards and had no problem taking advantage of the yawning gap between them, going in under the posts.
From the restart Phil Laing was yellow carded for a tackle in the air and once again Macclesfield were reduced to 14.
Macclesfield had one last series of attacks, but eventually got turned over close to Hoppers line; play finished in the visitor’s 22 but not before Macc were again reduced to 14, Tom Burden leaving the field after interfering with play.
Analyst Matt Coleridge, won’t have to dig too deep this week to see where it all went wrong, it was plain to see. Macclesfield had been competitive until the first yellow card before half time, but reduced to 14 their already underpowered scrum was under extreme pressure thereafter; tackling and discipline also added to the high penalty count. It may be psychological, playing on a plastic-pitch, but proper tackle technique seemed to have deserted a number of would-be tacklers on Saturday.
Head Coach Andy Appleyard had this to say: “It was another wake-up call, and York next week won’t be easy, they are a good side and we will need to regroup and get back to our best. We are hoping to have a number of boys back in the mix for selection this week; and I’m confident that this group of players is good enough to take us back to National Two”.
Supporters will have been pleased to see Big Billy Robinson ‘ running’ on-and-off the pitch as a Water-boy on Saturday. His eventual return will be a big missing piece in Andy’s jigsaw, with Tom Morton out for some time, the 10 shirt will need filling, Will Davies did an excellent job on Saturday and with his brother Alex, we will have to wait and see if their University rugby careers can be delayed another week.
This Saturday brings newly promoted York to Priory Park for the first time. They sit in equal fifth place with Macclesfield after a big win over Rossendale.
The Club welcomes ex England captain Dylan Hartley, as a special guest on Saturday to Peter Harper’s President’s Lunch-a sell-out, natu